


RECAP: Winstar Casino New Year's Eve 2013

by wordwinx



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician)
Genre: New Year's Eve, Winstar Casino
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-12
Updated: 2014-01-12
Packaged: 2018-01-08 10:16:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1131461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordwinx/pseuds/wordwinx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This piece is nonfiction.  I have attempted to write a recap of the concert from New Year's Eve.  I didn't comment on all the songs from the set list but focused instead on my overall perspective of the experience.  I may have to go back and edit if I remember something I want to add later.  I didn't want the event to go without documentation.  None of Adam's events ever should.</p>
    </blockquote>





	RECAP: Winstar Casino New Year's Eve 2013

**Author's Note:**

> This piece is nonfiction. I have attempted to write a recap of the concert from New Year's Eve. I didn't comment on all the songs from the set list but focused instead on my overall perspective of the experience. I may have to go back and edit if I remember something I want to add later. I didn't want the event to go without documentation. None of Adam's events ever should.

I went to Winstar Casino in the middle of nowhere in the middle of winter to see Adam Lambert sing. That’s what it sounds like to people when I tell them what I did for New Year’s Eve. I’ve grown accustomed to the austerity of the words, how vaguely interpreted they must be by the ones around me who simply don’t get it. They asked me if I went with friends. I explained that I met them there. They nodded and tried not to wonder how that works, exactly, without needing the entire history of acquaintances that I somehow failed to mention to them. They asked me if it was a good show, and I cannot agree to a word as tiny as ‘good’ but to answer anything but the affirmative would indicate it was somehow short of expectation which is not only inaccurate but I think impossible where Adam Lambert is concerned. I told them it was wonderful. I had a great time. These words seem empty, and I sort of hope people will stop asking so I won’t have to put this experience in words anymore. A recap? This is why it’s hard to write one. It’s too good.

“Sounds like you were on a date.”

That’s what my sister said to me when I tried haphazardly to describe everything that happened at Winstar. Her comment stayed with me long after our conversation ended, when I was finally able to articulate what happened. Although everyone has a unique experience at an Adam Lambert concert, the unifying factor seems to be that we’re all on a date. Not literally perhaps, but I’m trying to illustrate a state of mind not an expectation. It’s a really personal thing that has a lot more to do with a celebration of self than actual romance. If you shaved your legs or wore sexy underwear, new shoes, an extra bauble or two – something shining which includes a wider smile . . . then you were essentially getting ready for a date. Some of us went even further into the realm of only-for-Adam by shutting off circulation, skating over hardwood, and hoarding crusts of bread for later. Don’t judge. You know you’ve done something extreme or even a little (a lot) weird before, during, or after an Adam Lambert concert. I, for one am not going to point any fingers.

New Year’s Eve at Winstar Casino was my 8th live show with Adam Lambert. Half of those including Winstar were booked on a whim. I squirmed. I paced. I wrung my hands then gave in – I’m going! I’m becoming quite comfortable with this sequence because the pay-offs for all the risks involved are always well worth it. This time, I jumped on a plane having met only one person before but planning to meet several others I “knew” via DM exchanges and cell numbers on twitter. In this fandom if I can call you BB, I assume we’ll hit it off when we greet each other face to face. As silly as that may sound, it is a theory that has not failed me yet. We hugged in the elevator and squealed at the box office. We laughed in the restaurant and danced at the club. Each time we gathered together, it struck me how truly beautiful Adam’s fans are – like gorgeous, no kidding . . . vivacious, hilarious, generous. It seemed important to all of us that Adam enjoy the audience as much as we enjoy his show. We got ready.

Then the concert happened. After a year and a half since I saw him last, Adam suddenly emerged and I was kind of ecstatic about it, bouncy even. A thousand pictures cannot do justice to a vision of Adam with the naked eye. There is something crisp and new about him like he’s freshly minted of precious material milled from the core of the Earth where matter is in its purest form, molten and luminous. He glows. Adam strode from the side and stepped up to the microphone. He grinned really, really big because this is his favorite game and he’s really, really good at it. He opened the show as if we had all tumbled out into the yard to play. His big O mouth and windmill claps are for you and you and you. Adam points at everybody because we’re all on his team, and about to win the world together. He smiles with triple digit wattage, and I believe we can. A stand out for me among the opening numbers was Pop That Lock! His walk walk walk downstage was so symbolic of his confidence lately. He opened his mouth and set that voice free! The entire opening sequence is so seamless, I wondered if he might always use it even years down the road. Then my head exploded contemplating new music and more concerts and more and more and more Adam. It’s really hard not to feel EVERYTHING past, present, and future when Adam says, “Hey, how ya doin’ tonight?” Well, I’m stupidly happy right this minute, Adam. You? 

When Adam says it’s time to bring it down, you know that’s where you’ll feel it – way, way down inside, and it can’t just be casual with him. He’s going to take you apart. I was so captivated by his presence, every seductive movement was like a vibration, another instrument. You feel him. It’s this vulnerable pleasure and pain thing and you’re glad for the ache because good sex that’s bad for you is just as honest as a roof right over your head when it comes to love, and you know he knows we know that. The end of Is This Love actually made me gasp it was so brutally beautiful. It’s no wonder Adam wanted the lights dimmed. Lay me down in darkness. Tell me what you see. The truth exposes us all when we whisper and wail in the dark. Thankfully, Lay Me Down and Kickin In together kind of make all the pain you’ve ever felt in your whole life go away. I think Adam squatting as low as he could go and humping the air only a few feet from my face had something to do with it. My top 10 list of sexiest Adam moves has been amended . . . again.

The latter half of the show, Adam was flirting and fidgeting, wanting things to be perfect as if he were hosting a cocktail party. He shrugged and said he’d prepared a little surprise for us. Ah, how nice, I thought. Oh . . . my . . . god!!! Whenever Adam alludes to the fact that he and the band just threw something together, grab onto something and hold on! What even was Red House? Adam sang, “Wait a minute, somethin’s wrong here.” And I sort of gulped since the idea of ‘here’ had become a relative thing and Adam was floating in a zone that was both pre-Idol and post-RCA at the same time. If I wondered where Adam was going in era three, the answer is – all the f**kin’ way! Take my picture, junebugs! Yeah, somebody better be recording this shit coz epic needs a date stamp! Are ya gonna go my way? Yes, Adam . . . I’m with you all the way.

When it was over, we slowly, hesitantly filed out then lingered at the doors. I met a full spectrum of fans there. A former virgin in blissful euphoria tried desperately to share her thoughts that although scattered, actually made total sense to me. Those of us seasoned fans who could compare former shows affirmed that yeah, it was a good one and he sure was on fire tonight. Casual fans were also charmed and chatty. But me . . . I was calm, strangely and sublimely calm. I don’t know why, but it was a greater contentment than I’ve felt before. It seemed like the next step for me as a fan, and I think that’s why it was so hard to write a recap. My feelings are no longer new, but they are deep and definite. It’s just gonna keep getting better. 

My girls and I greeted the New Year with margarita toasts and champagne kisses while visions of Adam still danced in our heads. It was perfect really, but it seems that every Adam concert is the best ever and always for a gazillion reasons both personal to us alone and universal to us all. The only conclusion to be drawn from this experience is that we have to do this again. And we will, too. Wherever Adam is performing, it’s a date.


End file.
